PHOTOGRAPHY

So about a month ago I had the absolute pleasure of being invited by a variety of tourist boards to explore Cannes, Nice and Paris. I'd never been to Cannes or Nice before so I jumped at the chance. The Itinerary was jam packed with gang of sweet activities, along with a great crew of people who were a mix of bloggers, vloggers and photographers. I had an amazing time to say the least. Here's my round up of the highlights from the trip.

CANNES

Saint-Honorat Island

First stop on our Riviera adventure was the beautiful Island of Saint-Honorat. Just a short boat ride from Cannes. The peaceful Island is owned and inhabited by monks. It's small enough to walk end to end and well worth a visit. We did a little bit of exploring and then ended with a wine tasting from the Islands own Vineyards. I had to come home with a bottle of Red I was so impressed with the unique taste due to the location of the vineyards.

Cannes, back on the mainland

Upon our return from the Saint-Honorat Island, we strolled along the palm tree lined marina, set against some beautiful hotels which felt like they were straight out of a Wes Anderson movie.

Cannes is a very intimate small town, where you would struggle to get lost. A few days before I was heading out for the trip, I noticed that a friend of mine was going to be in Cannes. I didn't reach out to him because I knew I would be on a tight schedule, but as we wandered the streets, low and behold I saw him and had a quick catch up. So yes, I'm not exaggerating when I say It's intimate.

Lastly one of my favourite facts I learned about Cannes was that It has around 320 days of pure sunshine, and seeing as it's only 2 hour 45mins away from the UK. That's including flights and a short train journey from Nice airport, I decided to revisit later this year.

Midem music festival

Our evening activities were at the Midem festival on the beach. Which was particularly to my taste as It was a hip hop line up. The headline act of the evening was Wyclef Jean who you'd know and recognise from the Fugees.

Old town, Cannes

NICE

Next up we travelled to Nice. Starting at Garibaldi square, then onto the beachfront and finally ended up at the Old town. NIce was a beautiful place to explore by foot, with so much to take in. The architecture the food and of course the never ending beachfront.

The beach front

Nicellaneous

View from my balcony at the Jay Hotel, which was a short walk from the beach and so went to explore at night.

PARIS

This was my second visit to Paris this year and boy was I excited, as on my last visit It practically rained everyday. This time it was pure sunshine which really is the way to explore this beautiful city.

Montmartre

We began with a walk through Montmartre. Definitely one of my favourite places to revisit, and an absolute gem for street photographers. Also, it's one of the locations used in the FIlm Amelie.

4 roues sous 1 parapluie

This was definitely one of my favourite activities from the whole adventure. Seeing Paris from the back of an open top 2CV was just magic and completely blew me away, I think I didn't stop smiling the whole time and can not recommend doing this enough, especially on a beautiful sunny day. It offeres a truly unique perspective of this city and the drivers are full of facts and stats.

We Love Green festival

What better way to wrap up an amazing break, than at the "We Love Green" festival. Again an event I will never forget a we got to witness the legendary "Justice" first hand under the stars on a perfect summers evening. Sadly I didn't get many shots that did the festival or justice (pardon the pun;) . Instead I've stitched together a few Instagram stories I took at the festival which help bring it to life.

Yesterday night I was lucky enough to be invited to a very intimate secret gig held by Nespresso at their very own cafe in Soho London. The special guest was the one and only Izzy Bizu who charmed us all with her beautiful voice. Here's I few shots I managed to grab of her and her band, along with a quick shot of Rick Edwards who was kind enough to spare me a moment.

SO, here's my second YouTube video, once again it's an unboxing video for this cool wireless bluetooth speaker from Sony. In the video I give you my first impression on the product as well as highlighting some cool features from the apps.

I was lucky enough to be gifted the new Huawei Watch 2 a couple of weeks ago at the Launch party at the Saatchi gallery in London, and thought what better excuse to finally and officially kick off my YouTube channel than with an unboxing. More vids to follow on all sorts of topics from photography, gadgets, fashion and lifestyle.

This is a super hot topic right now within the Instagram Influencer community. I advise all my clients and agencies to read the following articles before selecting the type of Influencer you choose to work with! I'll continue to update this post with the latest and most relevant blog posts I find on the issue. Thank me later...

Last week I had the pleasure of attending a very cool dinner which celebrated slow artistry w/ @bombaysapphireuk . The evening showcased how the slow preparation of food and drinks creates intense flavours and a good time. #sponsored

Check out my short video below to find out more and hear from the Inventor on how he creates Air-Ink. (Instagram stories - 2602 views)

PAINTED WITH (AIR) POLLUTION”... I kid you not! Air-Ink is the world’s first ink created from air pollution, created by Anirudh Sharma and championed by Tiger Beer who brought this inspiring technology to my attention. Here’s @kristopherh working his magic.

I was honoured to have my London series for Star Wars Rogue One exhibited at the BFI for the cast and crews screening premiere. Here's a few shot from the evening. (I only just got the images sent through)

To wrap up a very cool year for me my twitter blew up as my Star Wars Photo series for Rogue One was featured on the Twitter Star Wars channels in the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, and Spain. Chuffed!

The rather thoughtful folks over at @officialwileyfox have given me a cool offer to share with y'all. Even if the offer is'nt for you, tell your friends about it and they’ll give you £15 every time one of them buys a phone.You’ll even earn £7.50 when your friends share our offer and any of their friends buy. Kinda win win right? OK, my work here is done 😎. Click here to go get your handset now.

Vegan Hazelnut Chocolate Pasteries (personal favourite)

I couldn't be prouder to be the photographer for this magnificent contemporary streetwear Label since it's conception. And now you can be a part of it's exciting future too, as we take the next big step together. For further details click here

Super excited to be heading out to the Edinburgh Fringe festival for the next few days, where I'll be putting the Huawei P9's Dual lens camera to the test. Check out the videos below to see what the #DualLensDuel is all about.

SONY wireless speakers srs-xb3

Pros

It was super simple to connect via bluetooth to both my mobiles (android and iPhone) as well as my macbook pro.

Sound quality is superb.

Water resistant.

24hr Battery life.

Cons

I've only got one issue and that's with the recharging connections. Its got a DC in and a USB, meaning I'd have to carry a different cable to recharge this guy, which isn't ideal when I try to travel as light as possible.

Conclusion

Overall I'm impressed with both products, they are both aesthetically pleasing and very well put together and so will look good anywhere in my flat. Although they are designed for use whilst out and about, I'll be putting them to good use when I'm sitting at my desk editing photos. For me, It's simply a great portable audio solution for around the home.